Pathfinder Society Scenario Intro 1: First Steps—Part I: In Service to Lore (PFRPG) PDF

4.10/5 (based on 34 ratings)

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st level characters.

In your first mission as a Pathfinder agent, the head of the Grand Lodge sends you on a number of missions throughout the metropolis of Absalom, pitting you against traps,thieves, and even an unruly devil, all in the pursuit of knowledge.

Written by Adam Daigle.

This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

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PZOPSSINTRO1E


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Average product rating:

4.10/5 (based on 34 ratings)

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Great right up until the last scene.

4/5

Ran this yesterday as my first ever Pathfinder Society event. Two of the players were new, but even the non-newbies had a lot of fun. I chatted with the players about it afterwards and they broadly agreed with my feelings of the scenario.

We liked how it gently and progressively introduced new players to various concepts in each scene:

Spoiler:
- Simple attack and skill usage mechanics in the warehouse,
- Roleplaying encounters and investigation with Auntie Baltwin,
- Puzzles and traps in the mansion vault, and
- Encouraging the players to think outside of the box to solve problems with the imp.

Too bad the final scene ruins all of that.

Spoiler:
- Railroady forced entrance into the alleyway (although I guess you can expect 'forced' in PFS),
- Annoyingly small map where only 1-2 people can do anything at any given time,
- Combat tactics from the enemies that make absolutely no sense and don't work together at all,
- Stupidly high damage output for level 1 from Ledford, and
- Color spray against newbies? Really?

I was lucky to only hit with Ledford twice during the combat. I still managed to nearly kill two out of the four PCs.

Overall a good starter scenario, and besides, it's free!


Great Way to Introduce New Players

4/5

Length: Medium
Experience: GM
Entertainment: Decently entertaining, if you have a group into the experience. A disinterested group will probably see little more than "fetch quests". (3/5)
Role-play: The amount really depends on the personalities and experience of the players that make up the group. The group I ran through it didn't do too much, despite my trying to "play up" the personalities, but I can see lots of opportunities for role-playing. (4/5)
Encounters: The challenges are varied, but require a bit of thinking on players' parts. The scenario provides some work arounds for stumped players (i.e. skills checks). (4/5)
Overall: The scenario is an interesting and helpful way to introduce new players to PFS, but it does help if GMs are familiar with Absalom to provide good flavor and role-playing for each of the districts the players visit. (4/5)
Would you recommend: Definitely


4/5

Extremely fun to play and GM! There's a lot of roleplay as this is mainly a diplomatic errand and investigation type scenario.

As a GM - have fun with the NPCs and let their personalities come alive. This is the first time players will meet faction heads and get to roleplay as Pathfinders, so make it memorable for them!

spoiler:
The final combat was confusing for me as a GM. The tactics don't entirely make sense and I wish that bug would be fixed. It was also my first time to GM so I would recommend new GMs study the tactics a few times before running the scenario.


Good intro scenario for new players, but not overly challenging

3/5

This is a good way to introduce players new to PFSOP, especially with meeting faction leaders, there is also some pretty good rp opportunites here, but my group found the combat encounters and puzzles extraordinarily unimpressive. On the other hand, it's a free scenario, and it's a good way to break in inexperienced players, but players who have experience playing rpg's are likely to be underwhelmed by this one.


In Service to Lore

4/5

There isn't really a lot of lore to speak of, but for a basic faction introduction mission it's not bad. The pacing is swift and the straight forward nature of the tasks keeps new players focused and experienced players wary.

This mod truly shines when the GM plays up the NPC's. As a GM it gives you a chance to break out your best used-chariot salesman, distracted little kid, or pompous professor. Show players this is a role playing game, have fun with it.


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Spoiler:
When I ran it, the halfling barbarian succeeded on a bull rush against the party fighter and kept the fighter prone. Things went down hill from there, though the PCs managed to pull it out of the bag at the last minute.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Spoiler:
I meant for that last encounter to be challenging, because so much of the adventure is more flavor and fairly harmless, but I never wanted to write a TPK encounter.

I mean, how rude would that be? Some kid sitting down at a convention to play her first game of Pathfinder and get ganked after four hours. Ouch. Since so much of the previous four encounters are rather harmless, and not factoring in healer-less groups, I assumed the group would probably be fairly healthy by the time they got there and ready for a good old fashioned fight.

I ran this twice and watched it twice. Ran once for my home game and once at a con, and watched/read two PBPs here on the boards. Both groups on the boards totally smashed it. They seemed challenged, but they worked with good tactics to really rock the encounter. My con experience was positive because this group of folks who only met that day worked together (with some great luck) to just mow down the competition. My home group fared...well, less than well. No one died, but all but one character dropped.

I admit, this encounter can be pretty swingy. Some of that depends on the luck of the dice, and some of that depends on tactics. That for sure was intentional. I chose that map and the combatants specifically for that.

Liberty's Edge

I have a few questions about this series of society scenario.

First of all, I am from Turkey and we newly started to have Pathfinder Society Plays. I am organizing the Society event in our university and interested in running this first steps scenarios at first.

But, I can not register an event with these scenarios, cause they are not selectable on the list of society scenarios. So how can I report the characters that played on this scenario?

Also, for this scenario, If I am not wrong, players should not have a faction for start. So how can they set their characters without a faction to the Society character registering web page?

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

yilmazmus6 wrote:

I have a few questions about this series of society scenario.

First of all, I am from Turkey and we newly started to have Pathfinder Society Plays. I am organizing the Society event in our university and interested in running this first steps scenarios at first.

Congrats on getting Pathfinder going in Turkey!

yilmazmus6 wrote:


But, I can not register an event with these scenarios, cause they are not selectable on the list of society scenarios. So how can I report the characters that played on this scenario?

The intro series Scenarios are listed at the end of the Season 3 Scenarios in the listing.

yilmazmus6 wrote:


Also, for this scenario, If I am not wrong, players should not have a faction for start. So how can they set their characters without a faction to the Society character registering web page?

The player doesn't have to choose a faction for this series, and the person reporting it can just put a placeholder and change it once the player chooses a faction for that PC. This thread deals with that question in better detail.

Welcome to Pathfinder Society! Hope you and your players have a great time. Also, consider checking out the Pathfinder Society threads here on the messageboards. The people there are super-helpful.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
yilmazmus6 wrote:

I have a few questions about this series of society scenario.

First of all, I am from Turkey and we newly started to have Pathfinder Society Plays. I am organizing the Society event in our university and interested in running this first steps scenarios at first.

But, I can not register an event with these scenarios, cause they are not selectable on the list of society scenarios. So how can I report the characters that played on this scenario?

Also, for this scenario, If I am not wrong, players should not have a faction for start. So how can they set their characters without a faction to the Society character registering web page?

Hoşgeldiniz!

Good to see someone from Turkey playing PFS, I lived there for 3 years, and my wife is Turkish.

So to fix the scenario so you can select it, you need to edit your event you put into this site and add it.

You go to your event, select edit, Scroll down all the way to the bottom where the scenarios are to add the scenarios you which to report. You just select them to add them. all the first steps are in Season 3 sections, then select save changes.

Adam answered your other questions.

Liberty's Edge

Thanks for all the responses, I have fixed the event.

I hope with the kickstart that we used on our university FRP club, Turkey will have some society action. :)

I am looking forward to report our first events:)


My question, I don't know if it'll be best asked here, or in a general discussion of the Pathfinder Soceity, but I couldn't find a like-worded version of this:

I'm new to the PFS, and I'm scheduled to play my first session on June 16 at a local game store, but the only two groups are running "Shipyard Rats," and since that scenario is not part of the intro, and thus requires a Faction Trait, am I able to create a new character whenever I do get a chance to run the Intro series so that I can gain the full benifits at least once for one character? Or is that once I pick a Faction Trait, all of my characters have to be associated with the corresponding Faction?

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Nate,

I posted your question here. Along with my answer, if I understood the question.

Grand Lodge

Ok. Please be patient, im a complete and utter nub.
I don't have a group, and have never played Pathfinder. My intention was to rock up to an organized game held at a local hobby shop.
Must this scenario be played through, do i need to pre organize it, and what disadvantages will i suffer if i skip it?

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

DonkeyOpera,

While I don't know where you are (general rant, is putting locating in one's profile too much to ask?) first let me welcome you to Pathfinder.

Have you played any tabletop RPGs? Pathfinder is obviously similar to D&D 3.5, but the basics of any RPG are the same. Depending on location, you may wish to find the local Venture captain and reach out to him. Either he or an experienced minion might be in range to run an initial game for you, to let you get the mechanics from the PC side of the screen before you put on the GM hat yourself (If you're in Ohio, I can try to carve out a weekend.)

The first steps trillogy as a whole is designed to familiarize the players with the world, as well as the game. You get to meet the heads of the factions, do some role playing and provlem solving (pt 1) dungeon crawling (Pt 2) and overland travel (Pt 3) By the time your PCs finish (Assuming they don't get killed) they'll be second level.

I like pt 1 because a) I like low level characters and b) I like doing funny voices.

For First Steps

Spoiler:

Ambrus Valin R. Lee Ermey seems natural for him.
Guaril Karela if you can channel your inner Marlon Brando Don Vito Corleone fits.
Ollysta Zadrin I don't have a character for yet, but I play her like she's about to put you in a diabetic coma, being so sickenly sweet.
Gilga Baldwin, I'm dating myself, but Carol Burnett's Miss Hannigan from Annie (optionally her housekeeper from Noises Off) is a natural fit. Clear to the point that when I played it I was like "Holy crap, I just decked Carol Burnett!"
Amneopheus Appropriate then that Erick Avari's performance in the Mummy is where I get him from.
Zarta Draleeen Lots of sources make her up. From Melinda Clarke's Lady Heather to Elizabeth Hurley's Devil in Bedazzled, she's a hoot to play. Though some of Alex Kingston's River might be sneaking in.

Grand Lodge

DonkeyOpera wrote:

Ok. Please be patient, im a complete and utter nub.

I don't have a group, and have never played Pathfinder. My intention was to rock up to an organized game held at a local hobby shop.
Must this scenario be played through, do i need to pre organize it, and what disadvantages will i suffer if i skip it?

Welcome! You're not required to play this scenario (although it's a good one). What they're playing at the hobby shop most likely will allow for starting characters. Even if it doesn't, pre-generated characters at higher levels are available.

It always helps an organiser if you make contact and let them know you're coming, so they can find the required number of GMs, maybe make decisions on what scenarios to run and any other preparations.

You can only play this scenario as one of the first three adventures for your character, while he or she is 1st level. The disadvantage of skipping it now is just that you might have to start another character to play it later.

Grand Lodge

Thanks much for the responses. emailed my regional co-ordinator. He stated pretty much the same as above.

Decided 'bugger it' and am getting a group together from retirement to learn and play PFS. ;o) Can always apply the GM credit to my first character.

Grand Lodge

Ok, Mr Daigle. I have a question, based on my nubness and reading/interpretation of the info presented.

On the session sheet, there is 417 gold (from which i determined the rewards for successful completion of the 5 challenges) and 5 magic items listed/printed.

Throughout the session, multiple potions and other magic items are listed in the adventure, as well as numerous non magic items and moneys, which are not on the sheet.

SO, obvious maybe to most, but as stated, im a nub. Tomorrow night will be my first game/gm session. Are the items and money listed on the session sheet the max gained, or just examples. EG,

Spoiler:
the silver letter opener and riding crop?

Also, can the PCs sell whatever non magic items they find to increase their cash gained (usual sale restrictions apply)?

Thanks in advance.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
DonkeyOpera wrote:

Ok, Mr Daigle. I have a question, based on my nubness and reading/interpretation of the info presented.

On the session sheet, there is 417 gold (from which i determined the rewards for successful completion of the 5 challenges) and 5 magic items listed/printed.

Throughout the session, multiple potions and other magic items are listed in the adventure, as well as numerous non magic items and moneys, which are not on the sheet.

SO, obvious maybe to most, but as stated, im a nub. Tomorrow night will be my first game/gm session. Are the items and money listed on the session sheet the max gained, or just examples. EG, ** spoiler omitted **

Also, can the PCs sell whatever non magic items they find to increase their cash gained (usual sale restrictions apply)?

Thanks in advance.

max gold is assuming they find everything(and includes the items already)

(although I have heard some of the scenarios you don't need to find everything to get max gold)

The only way to get more gold is to sell items they have purchased and day job rolls.

Scarab Sages

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps Subscriber
Catprog wrote:
DonkeyOpera wrote:

Ok, Mr Daigle. I have a question, based on my nubness and reading/interpretation of the info presented.

On the session sheet, there is 417 gold (from which i determined the rewards for successful completion of the 5 challenges) and 5 magic items listed/printed.

Throughout the session, multiple potions and other magic items are listed in the adventure, as well as numerous non magic items and moneys, which are not on the sheet.

SO, obvious maybe to most, but as stated, im a nub. Tomorrow night will be my first game/gm session. Are the items and money listed on the session sheet the max gained, or just examples. EG, ** spoiler omitted **

Also, can the PCs sell whatever non magic items they find to increase their cash gained (usual sale restrictions apply)?

Thanks in advance.

max gold is assuming they find everything(and includes the items already)

(although I have heard some of the scenarios you don't need to find everything to get max gold)

The only way to get more gold is to sell items they have purchased and day job rolls.

Organised Play is a bit of a strange beast.

It helps to think about it in these terms:
-No items gained during the scenerio get written onto a character's sheet unless they have purchased it with the gold given out, though the items can be used during the scenerio.
-The Chronicle Sheet only lists items that are not readily available items (eg the two spoilers items can easily be bought by anyone as they are not magical). You will find that anything listed as commonly available in the Guide is not listed on the Chronicle sheet ie, the Chronicle sheet opens up those items listed for purchase forever to that particular character only.
-if it is a not-commonly-available item in the scenerio and not listed on the Chronicle it is not available to the characters for purchase.

Grand Lodge

OK, thank you both very much. I kinda went with, if its not listed on the sheet (magic items/potions/etc), and not used by players in game, then the society takes it and 'stores' it.

Non magic gear, however, i allowed the players to keep and sell back at half listed value ie: masterwork chain shirt, tanglefoot bags etc.

Assumed (without better knowledge) that this was correct.


So, what happens to PA if you only play one of the series and not all 3?
And what if you already chose a faction?


Are there going to be new versions of these intro scenarios for Year of the Risen Rune or are these now the stock "intro" scenarios?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

These are the current "stock" introductory scenarios. We might do more in the future, but we're planning on running with these for the foreseeable future and don't currently have any other introductory content in the works.


Mark Moreland wrote:
These are the current "stock" introductory scenarios. We might do more in the future, but we're planning on running with these for the foreseeable future and don't currently have any other introductory content in the works.

Awesome! Thanks!


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I think I've found an error in Ledford.

Ledford:
Ledford's offense is listed as Melee greataxe +5 (1d10+4/×3). It appears he hasn't been given 1.5 x Str as bonus damage for wielding his greataxe in two hands. Also, unless his greataxe is masterwork and not noted as such, his To Hit is one too high (BAB +1, +3 for Str when raging = +4, not +5).


His strength when raging is 17, which means a bonus of 3.
3*1.5 = 4.5, and I believe you round down so it seems correct to me?

Also, Ledford's a halfling, they get +1 on all attack rolls for being small size.


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I missed the small size, thank you.

Shadow Lodge

Another nub GM question -

I can't seem to wrap my head around the use of the obscuring mists in the final encounter. The NPCs basically cast it on themselves and then rush in, leaving the one caster in a blind fog?

Can someone please suggest how this is supposed to work properly? I am hoping to run this soon but have gotten hung up on this point for some reason.


I'd love to be able to pick this up as a pack of all three scenarios, or perhaps some other dead-tree bundle, or 'PFS Starter Kit' or something. Printing these out on my ink jet is pricey, and while I love the PDF, I have to plan on stuff fouling up. I also want to have the dead-tree copy to let people look at AFTER the game.

I'll see how other products work out.

Dark Archive

When I ran this for my group, it became a highly amusing series of terrible misses by the party's Paladin and the halfling barbarian, both of whom just...could not hit each other, even when they both stopped Power Attacking. Meanwhile, the preen Ezren (we're down one player) was reduced to using Hand of the Apprentice to smack the halfling in the head with his cane repeatedly. The players locked down the alleyway immediately, preventing any flanking by just...not letting anyone past them. The party ranger actually went down no less than three times over the course of the first scenario, no lie.

He got knocked out in the final fight, he got knocked out when they fought the imp, he got knocked out when he fell through the hole in the warehouse and had just enough nonlethal that it knocked him out. I swear he spent half the session tripping over things and getting knocked out, though he aquitted himself beautifully in the next two scenarios.


Will there be any revision to this scenario with the change in how one achieves Faction missions or gains Prestige?

Sovereign Court

Does anyone know why this mission and series was retired? I don't understand how that affects us if we still play through the series now?

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Captain Phoenix wrote:
Does anyone know why this mission and series was retired? I don't understand how that affects us if we still play through the series now?

With Season 5, the Shadow Lodge and the Lantern Lodge factions have been removed. So the scenario series is no longer valid for new characters.

Sovereign Court

Lord Fyre wrote:
Captain Phoenix wrote:
Does anyone know why this mission and series was retired? I don't understand how that affects us if we still play through the series now?
With Season 5, the Shadow Lodge and the Lantern Lodge factions have been removed. So the scenario series is no longer valid for new characters.

Thanks Lord Fyre. That leads to my next question, why were the Shadow and Lantern Lodges removed? And must characters from those factions find new ones?

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Captain Phoenix wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:
Captain Phoenix wrote:
Does anyone know why this mission and series was retired? I don't understand how that affects us if we still play through the series now?
With Season 5, the Shadow Lodge and the Lantern Lodge factions have been removed. So the scenario series is no longer valid for new characters.
Captain Phoenix wrote:
Thanks Lord Fyre. That leads to my next question, why were the Shadow and Lantern Lodges removed?

There you are delving into things beyond the mortal ken. (i.e., you need to ask the PFS managers.)

Captain Phoenix wrote:
And must characters from those factions find new ones?

Yes, you do. But, I believe that if you have prestige for those factions, there are some special rules. I would suggest asking on the PFS sub-forums for players more knowledgeable then I to find the special instructions.

Also remember to grab the updated Player's Guide. :)

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

If your faction is retired, you can change faction (once) for free before you play the next game. You keep your Fame, Prestige, faction traits and faction-specific vanities, but can't obtain new vanities from the faction's list.

edit: a specific exception was called out this time, but really without need, since No One Left Behind was something you'd have to purchase anyway.

Sovereign Court

Starglim wrote:

If your faction is retired, you can change faction (once) for free before you play the next game. You keep your Fame, Prestige, faction traits and faction-specific vanities, but can't obtain new vanities from the faction's list.

edit: a specific exception was called out this time, but really without need, since No One Left Behind was something you'd have to purchase anyway.

Thanks Starglim


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

This might be a bug, but I can't seem to add Part 1 to my event to report it. I can add Part 2 and Part 3 which seems odd. Has anyone else had trouble reporting for Part 1?

Update: Ok, you cannot add this scenario from the "Free" list to an event, but you can add it from the "Season 3" list. Really odd.

Scarab Sages

mikem91 wrote:

This might be a bug, but I can't seem to add Part 1 to my event to report it. I can add Part 2 and Part 3 which seems odd. Has anyone else had trouble reporting for Part 1?

Update: Ok, you cannot add this scenario from the "Free" list to an event, but you can add it from the "Season 3" list. Really odd.

I had the same problem and came here to report it. Thanks for asking and answering the question.

Sczarni

Thanks mikem91. I came here with that same problem. It's confusing that they have both up there still.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Just an FYI, this scenario is now under the "Evergreen" rules in the PFS Season 8.0 guide. As before, it is replayable at Level 1 infinitely, but now can also be played (and/or assigned GM credit) at level 2 a single time per play/GM, per campaign mode (Standard/Core).

Liberty's Edge

A great introduction to the Pathfinder world and game.

Great stuff,
Brian

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